Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China
A constituent department of the State Council of the People's Republic of China responsible for domestic and foreign trade and international economic cooperation, and the principal regulatory authority in China's export control system.
Core Facts
Timeline (last 90 days)
In China, the export control list is usually formulated under the leadership of the Ministry of Commerce, operates under laws such as the Export Control Law, and the control methods include prohibiting exports and licensing exports.
China's AI export control scope does not include API calls, APP or web interaction, SaaS applications, or lightweight on-device local deployment; overseas localized deployment of restricted models falls within the scope, overseas unrestricted clouds may qualify for automatic licensing, and technologies already in the public domain through open source or academic papers are not covered.
In July of this year, the Ministry of Commerce consulted companies including Alibaba, ByteDance and Zhipu about possible control measures, with discussions including tightening restrictions on overseas downloads of model weights while allowing overseas customers to continue using hosted Chinese models.
Open-source technologies that have already entered the public domain are outside the scope of control; for open-source AI versions not yet released, the Ministry of Commerce proposes granting automatic licensing, achieving 'report and export immediately'.
The temporary pre-export registration system has taken effect immediately, with trigger conditions including: transferring ownership of the listed technologies abroad, authorizing their use abroad, domestic technology owners being controlled by foreign capital, and other circumstances designated by the Ministry of Commerce through notice.
China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology jointly released a draft revision of the Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export, proposing to add 40 technologies, of which 23 are directly related to artificial intelligence.
Reuters reported that China's Ministry of Commerce has discussed restricting overseas access to the most powerful models with Alibaba, ByteDance, and Z.AI, with a proposed three-tier system, but no draft or date has been set.
All Facts (6)
China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology jointly released a draft revision of the Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export, proposing to add 40 technologies, of which 23 are directly related to artificial intelligence.
80%UnverifiedIn China, the export control list is usually formulated under the leadership of the Ministry of Commerce, operates under laws such as the Export Control Law, and the control methods include prohibiting exports and licensing exports.
50%UnverifiedChina's AI export control scope does not include API calls, APP or web interaction, SaaS applications, or lightweight on-device local deployment; overseas localized deployment of restricted models falls within the scope, overseas unrestricted clouds may qualify for automatic licensing, and technologies already in the public domain through open source or academic papers are not covered.
50%UnverifiedThe temporary pre-export registration system has taken effect immediately, with trigger conditions including: transferring ownership of the listed technologies abroad, authorizing their use abroad, domestic technology owners being controlled by foreign capital, and other circumstances designated by the Ministry of Commerce through notice.
50%UnverifiedOpen-source technologies that have already entered the public domain are outside the scope of control; for open-source AI versions not yet released, the Ministry of Commerce proposes granting automatic licensing, achieving 'report and export immediately'.
50%UnverifiedIn July of this year, the Ministry of Commerce consulted companies including Alibaba, ByteDance and Zhipu about possible control measures, with discussions including tightening restrictions on overseas downloads of model weights while allowing overseas customers to continue using hosted Chinese models.
50%